"Berlin is a place that has dealt well with so many of the problems we face across Western Europe, with immigration, with regards to Russia, in rebuilding ourselves after the collapse of the totalitarian state as a tolerant and open city.
"That's what the crash at the Christmas market targeted."
"Right-wing German populists from the surging Alternative for Germany party took to social media on Monday to blame the country's chancellor, Angela Merkel, for welcoming migrants, calling the victims 'Angela's dead.'
"It was a response that brought to mind as essay written years ago, criticizing the area around the Gedachtniskirche for being too cosmopolitan--a meeting place for 'harlots' and 'so-called men' and for people speaking all the languages of the world.'
"The essayist expressed contempt for what he called 'the spirit of the asphalt democracy' and predicted a 'day of judgment.'
That was 1928. The writer was Joseph Goebbels.
--New York Times, 12/21/2016, quoting long-time Berlin resident Elisabeth Ruge
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